The story about the bear and the rabbit – a fictional story

November 27, 2015

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An International week for students from Social Services, Occupational Therapy and Nursing was held last week. The aim with the week is that the students can discuss, argue and reflect in groups with professionals from different areas and with professionals with different cultural background on issues related to ethical questions. Someone else will soon post another blog about the week and what we did.

During International week our group (Group 5) was inspired by a lecture about cultural sensitivity. Shortly cultural sensitivity is about respecting cultural differences and take them into account when working with people from another culture than your own. One can do this by listening to the client’s opinions and values.

Based on this lecture we decided to write a fictional story about a bear and a rabbit who are patients in a hospital. The story focuses on an ethical dilemma that can take place in our field of work. We then presented this story in a seminar by doing a puppet theater.

Once upon a time in a hospital far, far away
Two nurses meet in the hallway
They greet each other, and say…. “Hello”
”What’s going on today” “I don’t know!”
What happens next?

“Ah, we got a new patient, I’ll put him in room three
I can make room for one more, if need be”
“Good, we’ll have one in soon
I’ll go and put him in that room”
What happens next?

The ambulance arrives
“Mr. Bear has arrived, can you give him his pill?”
“Ok, sounds good, I will
At the same time I’ll check the scratch in the rabbits face”
“OMG, did we put a bear and a rabbit in the same space?
We have to change it, that’s really bad
The rabbits will drive the poor bear mad
The rabbits are known to arrive with relatives and friends
The visits are constant, and will never end”
“And everyone knows that bears don’t like a crowd
Whereas the rabbits are known to be awfully loud”
The nurses they rush as fast as they can
To rescue the bear from the rabbits clan
What happens next?

When the nurses arrive, what do they see?
One single rabbit and as many bears as can be
A happy bear-gathering, and every seat is taken
The nurses realize, they were mistaken
The bear is not the lonely one as they thought he would be
And the rabbit doesn’t mind other people’s family
It’s more like a fun-house than a place for the ill
The nurses learn their lesson, and the bear gets his pill

A prejudice comes easy, so all be aware
A bear doesn’t always behave like a bear

Group five wrote this text together and we give anyone permission to use this text and rewrite it as they see fit (because we wrote it in one hour so it isn´t perfect yet)